In a few years it has become the largest European cryotherapy network, cold therapy transferred from the sports sector to beauty to slow down cellular aging. Now the brand of luxury anti-aging and detox centers “The Longevity Suite”, which has 14 facilities in Italy, eight of which direct (the last one opened in Milan Brera a month ago) and six in franchising, takes a strategic step.
«A capital increase of over 1.5 million euros has just been signed – explains Luigi Caterino, CEO of Longevity srl – dedicated to Marco Bizzarri, president and CEO of Gucci; Luca Poggi, director of the packaging giant Ima; Sabatino Cennamo, former CEO of Disney Italia and Apple Computer Italia. They have become our partners, sit on the advisory board and will help us in the strategic development of the company: we have major expansion projects ».
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The plan provides for direct opening of Longevity centers in the key cities (soon in Verona, Bologna, Lugano), while in the others the company will rely on master franchisees (scheduled for Turin, Modena, Florence). To open a Longevity center, an investment of 300-400 thousand euros is required. “The development plan aims to have 45 centers in Italy by 2023 and to push the internationalization of the brand starting from Lugano and then Marbella, Ibiza, London, Dubai and South Korea”, explains Caterino.
Longevity’s turnover in 2020 was 1.5 million euros with a gross operating margin (ebitda) of 12-13%; this year the target is 3.5 million with 21 direct and franchising centers. Within three years, the CEO promises, revenues will exceed 12 million. «It is a capital intensive format – adds Caterino – but the centers immediately profit. Covid has made a selection of people who want to take care of themselves and has not had a great impact on our customers, for 70% women between 40/55 years and 30% men, who on average spend about 3,500 euros per year with peaks of up to 10 thousand euros “. According to the manager – who founded the format with the cardiologist Massimo Gualerzi and the pharmacist Elisa Mondelli, thinking of it as a brand in the fashion sector – the Longevity centers fill a gap in the market: the one between the traditional beauty center, often devoid of cutting-edge technologies to combat aging, lose weight and pursue psycho-physical well-being, and the aesthetic doctor, who does not care about changing the lifestyle and pampering the client. “Our centers have a medical background but with a more relational approach and with customer care: we are closer to a luxury spa, we try to change the lifestyle and we want to be glamorous and ever closer to the world of fashion” .